Meet The Man Who Will Lead The Band On Stephen Colbert's 'Late Show'

NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 06: Jon Batiste performs onstage during the Legal Defense Fund Annual Gala to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Brown V. Board of Education at the New York Hilton Midtown on November 6, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Craig Barritt/Getty Images for NAACP Legal Defense Fund)

When Stephen Colbert takes over for David Letterman on Sept. 8, a lot will change on The Late Show, not least of all the music. Longtime bandleader Paul Shaffer departed the show after decades as one of the most respected musicians on TV. Colbert and company announced several months ago that jazz musician Jon Batiste had been hired for the highly-coveted gig to replace him.

For the 28-year-old piano player, this will be the first time many Americans have heard of him, and it is a great next step in an already impressive career. Not only is the job on Colbert’s show a great one for any musician, it will likely lead to more opportunities to play live around the world, healthier album sales and streaming figures, and recognition that rarely comes to talents in the jazz industry these days.

Batiste may be young (Colbert is almost twice as old), but he has already established himself as one of the better multi-instrumentalist bandleaders in the country. After getting his degree at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, he went on to Julliard, where he founded the band he now leads, Stay Human. Batiste and his bandmates have become enormous figures in the jazz world, touring constantly and releasing a handful of acclaimed albums. Since he’s still so young, there is no telling what else he could do with the rest of his career.

His band is coming with Batiste to the show. Stay Human is comprised of five musicians (Batiste, drummer Joe Saylor, bassist Phil Keuhn, sax player Eddie Barbash, and Ibanda Ruhumbika on tuba) who have been performing together live for several years. The band performed on Colbert’s Comedy Central show just a few years ago, at which point the host likely noticed Batiste’s talent both as a musician and a personality—something that’s very important for TV, as the two will be interacting in a way similar to how Paul Shaffer and David Letterman did before them.

Batiste and Colbert are just the latest new team to enter the late-night ratings race. The past few years have seen several new faces take over for legends, such as Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers, both of whom added music into their programs in their own, unique ways. Fallon brought respected R&B/hip-hop group The Roots on board to be his in-house band, while Meyers stuck to his Saturday Night Live family and recruited Fred Armisen to lead the 8G Band. Interestingly, while they were on different networks, Meyers looked to Letterman’s past for musical inspiration, as Paul Shaffer was also taken from SNL to run the
CBS Orchestra.